When Hope Transforms into Reality

The Church gives us a reading from St. Luke to correspond with the Second Sunday of Advent. The beginning of the Gospel message makes clear that the person of Jesus is not some mythical manifestation but rather an individual of flesh and blood present in the world. St. Luke accomplishes this fact by placing Jesus in an agreed historical context. “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.”

In ancient times, the people of Israel hoped a Messiah would visit them and relieve their existential angst. By including St. John the Baptist in his narrative, St. Luke successfully asserts that Israel’s hope has been answered in the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus described St. John the Baptist, his cousin, as the greatest person born. The voice of St. John the Baptist is so important in salvation history, alerting the world that the Messiah has come to save his people. In preparation for welcoming him, he preached a baptism of repentance and the forgiveness of sin. Traveling throughout Jordan, he preached to his listeners by quoting the prophet Isaiah, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.”

St. John knew humanity’s ancient desire for salvation was approaching. He understood it wouldn’t be long before God’s plan became a reality. He was also aware of Israel’s history when the people sinned, pushing God away from their presence. Only when they realized their awful behavior and subsequent repentance could their relationship with God be mended.  Time and time again, God welcomed their remorse and forgave them of their sins.

By reminding his followers of the need for a baptism of repentance and the forgiveness of sin, he urges his flock to be ready to welcome God again in a way their forefathers could not. Repentance involves the acknowledgment of our sinfulness, forcing us to look into the depths of ourselves and see our weaknesses and failures, all of which the faithful people had done for generations. What is new is the notion of baptism.

Although St. John admitted that his baptism was only a water bath, after Christ’s death and resurrection, baptism in the Spirit became a necessity of Christianity. It is the first step in making the path straight to the Lord by the forgiveness of our original sin when we became adopted sons and daughters of God. Our hope of being saved becomes a reality when we are baptized into the Body of Christ.

Being baptized does not necessarily mean our path to the Lord is straight because we can sin afterward. Repentance is an ongoing activity all Christians must engage in. As the season of Advent reminds us, we always need to make the paths of the Lord straight.

The activity of baptism and our need to repent are our responses to God’s invitation to salvation. By playing our part in the relationship, we recognize that God does not exude his power over us but wishes an appropriate exchange between the divine and human.

The divine-human relationship could never be fully realized without the incarnation of the Son of God. As human and divine, Jesus exemplifies the exchange. In his person, the human did not fight against the divine nor the divine against the human. Jesus is the archetype and the personification of humanity’s hope becoming a reality.

As we begin the Second Week of Advent, it is a good time to observe where our paths have veered from God. If they have, maybe it is a good time to straighten them and reestablish the relationship between God and ourselves. When our relationship with God and others is void of hindrances, we already live a hope that is now transformed into a reality.